


Arrivals

by aftereighteen



Category: Swimming RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-24
Updated: 2012-11-24
Packaged: 2017-11-19 10:51:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/572464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aftereighteen/pseuds/aftereighteen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan's a dad (not a kid!fic)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arrivals

“Dude, where are you?” Michael asks testily when Ryan answers the phone.

“At home,” Ryan replies, slightly muffled.

Michael frowns. “And where should you be?”

“Uh...”

“Let me help you out: the answer is, at the airport, greeting my adoring friend who I haven’t seen for a month and who just landed having got up at ass o’clock to be here,” Michael almost growls down the phone.

“Bro, you’re gonna have to like, get a cab,” Ryan tells him.

“A what?!”

“Cab,” Ryan repeats loudly. “You stick your arm out, tell them where you want to go and they take you. I’m busy, dude.”

“Doggy,” Michael whines in frustration. “You were supposed to pick me up.”

“And I’m telling you, I can’t,” Ryan’s voice is muffled again and he grunts slightly. Michael has no idea what the fuck is going on. “I’ve got my hands full, let yourself in when you get here.” And with no further explanation, the line goes dead.

Mike does as he’s told, reluctantly getting in a cab and telling the driver Ryan’s address. When he arrives, he lugs his bags up Ryan’s driveway and, as instructed, lets himself into the house.

He isn’t sure whether he wants to know what Ryan’s up to, but there are no other cars around so he assumes Ryan’s alone. Michael finds it strange that Carter hasn’t come up to him barking a greeting and wanting to be petted. It’s also odd that he can’t hear music or the TV.

Michael wanders through in the direction of the kitchen and finally works up the courage to call Ryan’s name.

“I’m in the laundry room!” comes the faint reply. Michael frowns again, annoyed that Ryan left him hanging around at the airport in favour of laundry.

He shakes his head and obediently heads into the laundry room, which is when it all finally becomes clear. It would appear that, when Michael was trailing through several countries promoting a range of brands, Ryan was busy becoming a dad. To – Michael does a quick butt-count as they’re busy feeding – eight puppies.

Mike stops and stares at the exhausted-looking dog who’s trying to nurse half a dozen squirmy babies, with Ryan supervising and attempting to prevent the pups from hurting each other in the crush. Michael hears a low growl near his feet and looks down to find Carter in front of him, finally acting like the Doberman he is.

Mike just raises an eyebrow at Ryan’s dog and Carter backs away, whining a little. Carter knows Michael and Michael knows that Carter’s a big baby – and wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a little jealous. He drops his bags and crosses the room to join Ryan.

He rubs a hand through Ryan’s hair, causing the other man to look round at him. Mike swoops in for a quick kiss before kneeling next to the older man. Ryan returns to the task of helping the puppies to feed, correcting the position of one as Michael watches.

“I thought you’d had Carter...” he trails off, gesturing vaguely at the mass of dogs on the floor.

Ryan nods, “Yeah they’re not his. He just thinks they are.”

Michael nods with him. “Right. And when did you get a pregnant bitch?”

“Oh, she’s not mine,” Ryan begins. Michael’s about to think that shit just got weird, before he remembers just as Ryan tells him. “She’s Dev’s. I spent a month telling him she was looking round and he finally took her to the vet and...well, here we are.”

“So why are you looking after them?” Michael feels like the stupid question is necessary.

Ryan looks at him. “Dude. Have you seen ‘em? How could I resist?” Ryan gazes back at the puppies and Michael wonders if Carter’s the only deluded pseudo-parent in the room.

But as they watch the puppies nurse and they start to fall off their mother with exhaustion and Ryan picks one up and cradles it against his chest, Michael feels something dislodge in his own chest.

The rest of the day slides quickly away. Michael spends far more of it than he imagined watching Ryan clean up “puppy accidents”, but also finds himself smiling and laughing a lot, as always when he’s around Ryan. They watch as the puppies continue their investigation of the house, supervised by the adult dogs. They loaf around on the couch together, puppies nestled alongside them, and when their mother is too exhausted to feed them, Ryan conjures up some fake puppy milk and nurses the greedy babies one by one until they pass out again.

When Ryan slumps against him later in the evening, barely able to keep his eyes open in order to play video games, Michael rubs the other man’s chest and searches through the DVR for a movie instead.

He feels Ryan’s chest expand beneath his hand as the older man yawns. “I’m so glad I’m not a dog.”

Michael doesn’t even blink at Ryan’s statement, more than used to his bizarre Lochte-isms. He’s tweeted worse, after all. He just waits for Ryan to continue.

“I mean, when we have kids, at least there won’t be shit everywhere,” Ryan muses. “Thank fuck for diapers, man. At least that contains the pee and poop somewhat.”

That gets Michael’s attention. He looks down at Ryan and echoes him. “When we have kids?”

“Bro,” Ryan hauls himself up, sitting to straddle Michael. “Like, I know we can’t do it the normal way, which is both a fucking shame and no big deal because, like, we can still do the fun part and all.” Michael’s kind of keeping up with Ryan’s logic, but still just blinks at him. “So it won’t be easy but, uh, we can get there, right?”

“You want us to have kids?”

“Are you telling me you don’t?” Ryan looks genuinely wounded and surprised.

“Well, um, I guess I hadn’t really...thought about it?”

Ryan frowns. “You don’t want to be a dad?”

“That’s not what I said.”

Ryan climbs off him and slumps down on the other side of the couch. Michael looks across at him guiltily. He looks at the TV for a little while before clearing his throat and finding his words.

“So do you, uh, want to find a donor or, like, adopt?” he asks quietly. Mike looks across at Ryan anxiously and sees the other man’s expression change as he turns slowly to stare at Michael.

Ryan blinks, open-mouthed. “I, uh, either?”

Michael nods and thinks a little more before speaking up again. “I could live to regret this but...the idea of a Little Lochte is kinda...appealing?”

Ryan flings himself across the couch and covers Michael’s face in wet kisses. He stops abruptly, holding Michael’s head in his hands and fixing him with an intense stare. “Are you sure?” he asks, panting slightly.

Michael fights against Ryan’s grip to nod slowly. “Let’s be dads. To a kid. Not puppies.”

Ryan grins. “Does that mean we get to do the fun part now?”

Michael laughs and pulls him in for a kiss.


End file.
